Having long played an essential role in the development of art, media and culture, recycling has emerged also as a field of theoretical explorations. The idea of recycling is understood here in a wider sense, as a production means and critical thinking tool, as an instrument for approaching and reclaiming—equally with deference and irreverence—the established cultural models.

Adaptation, remix, manipulation, remediation, quotation, serialism, appropriationism, simulations, mash-up, cut-and-paste, or simply copy-paste are different manifestations of the same idea of recycling and are all part of what was called the “Re- culture”. Such diversity proves that recycling—as a concept and as a means—is not linked to a specific artistic trend, media, technique or time period.

The main consequence of the practice of freely borrowing and recirculating sources is the undermining of established values such as originality, uniqueness, authorship and copyright. So, instead of narcissism and hermetic construct, recycling relies on networking and borrowing, on adaptation, free reference and intertextual commentary. In this process, both the sources recycled and the resulting products are seen not as terminals, but as networked nodes, as open narratives ready to be incorporated and reinterpreted in a new, recyclable discourse.

Ekphrasis is seeking papers that address the theme of recycling in the larger context of the digital age. How notions such as adaptation, manipulation, quotation are mobilized by artists and scholars nowadays? Does the act of recycling images have been altered as a result of the recent developments of new media technologies? What role the new recycling methods play in cinema, visual arts, literature and mass media? What are the goals, expectations, means and limitations of recycling images in the digital age? Is recycling a possible catalyst for the emergence of new technologies and mediums? How recycling images acted upon the development of new audiences?

Topics may include, but are not restricted to:

-Adaptation and quotation in film, art, literature and mass media-Medium revisited and residual media-Remediation and accessibility-Valuable, available, tactical cultural models-Recycling as a locus of cultural exchange-Mix, remix, mashup-The use of found footage and their artistic impact-Ownership, accountability, copyright-Empathy, epigonism, fake -Cross-disciplinary/inter-disciplinary recycling process-Originality, postmodern relativism and new forms of recycling-Transfer between high and low cultures-Appropriation and (media) manipulation-Strategies, patterns and platforms of recycling-Global, local and cross cultural fertilizations-Nostalgia and the memory of images-Recycling and cultural institutions: cinema, museum, archive-Retro chic-Piracy, activism, hacktivism -Oldies but goldies

Guest editors: Horea Avram and Claudiu Turcuş

Abstracts of up to 300 words are due by September 30th 2013.

Final submission is due November 20th 2013.The articles should be written in English or French (for English, please use the MLA citation style and documenting sources).

For the final essay, the word limit is 5000-8000 words of text (including references). Please include a summary and key-wordsThe articles should be original material not published in any other media before.Graduate students are particularly encouraged to submit papers.